Adam Schiff warns President could go from the White House to the big house

Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, says President Trump is the first U.S. leader "in quite some time to "face the very real prospect of jail time." (J. Scott Applewhite / AP)

Being in the White House may be keeping Trump out of jail, according to the top Democrat on the Senate House Intelligence Committee.

“There’s a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office the Justice Department may indict him,” Rep. Adam Schiff told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “That he may be the first President in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time.”

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Prosecutors with the Southern District Court of New York this week requested heavy prison time for the President’s former fixer Michael Cohen, who confessed he and Trump “acted in coordination” during the 2016 election to buy the silence of a porn star and a playboy model who’d allegedly had flings with Trump.

“We have been discussing the issue of pardons the President may offer to people or dangle in front of people,” Schiff said. “The bigger pardon question may come down the road, as the next President has to determine whether to pardon Donald Trump.”

According to Schiff, Trump’s alleged scheming with Cohen may be the reason he’s President.

“To have the Justice Department basically say the President of the U.S. not only coordinated but directed an illegal campaign scheme that may have had an election-altering impact is pretty breathtaking,” Schiff said.

The New York Times reported Sunday that the statute of limitations could expire on possible campaign violation charges against Trump if he were to win a second term and remain in office until 2024. There is debate as to whether or not a sitting president can be indicted.

Also Sunday morning, incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jerry Nadler told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump’s participation in the payoffs could be “impeachable offenses.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that Cohen was offering no new information and that the President’s personal lawyer of 12 years has a history of lying.

It was a brutal week for Trump. Not only did federal prosecutors claim Cohen was directed by Trump to silence porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal before the election. In a separate case, prosecutors accused former Trump campaign director Paul Manafort of lying about his ties to a Russian businessman with connections to his country’s government and downplaying Manafort’s own ongoing relationship with the President’s legal team.

It was also reported that former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn is cooperating with investigators looking into possible collusion between the President’s campaign and possible collusion with the Russian government.